Expo centennial group fine-tuning ideas to share this summer

And comics — as in Comic-Con and comic books — might play a major role.

Mike McDowell, CEO of the Balboa Park Celebration 2015 effort, said plans by 10 park institutions are due by July 15 and parkwide details, such as a music festival and innovations showcase, are being developed and priced.

“We’ve done a great deal of research and talked to a number of consultants who brought in some interesting ideas,” McDowell said. “The point we’re at now is to develop ideas into more concrete concepts that will not only have visuals attached to them, but also budgets. It’s the budget numbers that make me a little scared.”

The yearlong effort is being organized to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the 1915-16 Panama-California Exposition that made the park what it is today — the region’s cultural center and crown jewel — and introduced San Diego onto the world’s stage.

The city and tourism marketing district gave the group’s board, headed by Ben and Nikki Clay, about $1 million in seed money. But they have to raise what some estimates have said could total as much as $75 million for what could amount to San Diego’s third world’s fair, after the effort in 1915 and the California Pacific International Exposition in 1935-36.

McDowell said preliminary plans include opening and closing ceremonies, temporary exhibitions and installations in parking lots and unused space throughout the park, and nighttime sound-and-light shows that could boost park attendance and visitorship for the entire region.

Among the latest ideas under discussion is a role for Comic-Con International.

“There have been some very preliminary conversations, nothing specific,” McDowell said. “The idea is we need to get together and talk and try to find some common ground.”

One approach, he said, is to celebrate San Diego’s connections to the convention and comic books specifically for the entire year, not just at Comic-Con convention time in July.

“Really take the whole year and figure out how we can represent, through 2015, the art of comic book,” McDowell said.

Another idea is using the park’s Starlight Bowl as a venue to showcase local performing arts groups. “There are many hurdles to that, financially and structurally,” he said, “in order to bring that facility back up to what you’d call a usable standard.”

Ford Motor was the key sponsor of such events at what was known as Ford Bowl during the 1935-36 fair, but McDowell has a different idea of how Ford might participate here in 2015.

“The conversation that has occurred has been within the context of innovation and invention in San Diego,” he said. “While San Diego doesn’t necessarily produce a lot of the finished products that are consumed, we sure create and have invented some very important components that are now a part of that. One major element that was discussed was the auto industry and how our local companies have direct and continuing access to many of the auto manufacturers and would be a logical link to San Diego and obviously to our celebration.”

Similarly, McDowell said he has been in touch with Qualcomm and other high-tech and biomedical companies to find a way for them to display their history of innovation and future plans.

“We don’t want to talk about it as a function of our theming unless we can deliver on the promise,” he said. “Their feedback was absolutely, ‘We have the capacity and not only that, we have the cutting-edge information and ideas’ that will provide a ‘wow’ factor to our event.”

Continuing along in the planning process is a daily menu of music by local groups. “Our goal is to reach out to many of the existing musical organizations in San Diego and invite their leadership to participate in developing a master plan to do that,” McDowell said.

Finally, 10 park museums have received one planning grant each to work out the details, including financing, of blockbuster exhibitions or programs to offer in 2015. Those proposals are due July 15.

Once these and other ideas are collected, McDowell plans to launch a series of public meetings, probably starting near the end of the summer, to gauge public reaction.

At that point, the San Diego Convention and Visitors Bureau and Tourism Marketing District will be brought in to map out how to sell the world on coming to San Diego in 2015.

Meanwhile, McDowell said, the public can submit ideas at balboapark.org by going to the website’s “Park Information” section, choosing “2015 Celebration” and clicking on “Leave comments.” A celebration website will be launched later.